Waterloo 200 Legacy – The Age of Revolution

Recent international commemorations, which focused on the Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, highlighted a pivotal part of our history.

The American War of Independence, the French Revolution and later wars precipitated decades of revolution. In addition to war and conflict, this Age of Revolution (1775-1848) therefore also describes the political, social, economic, scientific and intellectual upheavals that ravaged European and American societies during this period.

However, it also marks an era that saw the arrival of ideas, systems and influences that shaped modern life.

As such, generous funding has been provided for a DCMS-approved Waterloo 200 Legacy Plan that is dedicated to advancing the educational value of The Age of Revolution. It is hoped that this will open up and support new learning opportunities and encourage pupils and teachers to acquire skills, understanding and confidence to appreciate and participate in this extraordinary period of history.

Since education is a long-term investment, Waterloo200 Legacy has a commitment to nurture and evolve those who already have some experience of this period but also provide a powerful medium to those teachers and pupils less familiar with this part of history.

The charity’s objective is to engage national schools and others across the educational spectrum and to be an organisation that meets specific educational needs across the period of the Age of Revolution.

Waterloo200 Legacy is building bespoke educational materials in a clear, sign-posted manner, including lesson plans and other educational and digital materials. The charity will maintain established trusted links and seek additional partnerships in the educational and cultural landscape so as to broaden the concept of ‘education’ to enable experiences, participation, creativity, enquiry and critical thinking.

Waterloo200’s educational legacy activities will continue to progress its website enjoying the strong support of Culture 24, with an evolving catalogue of relevant items and original material and resources for each curricular level.

Content themes will act as the cornerstones for all learning provision. The charity is evaluating the use of an array of innovative multi-media technology for the classroom and will engage with evolving social media platforms alongside useful and trusted learning resources. Each activity will work together to form an education offering suited to all key stages that is shaped by:

1. Significant events, people and places from the Age of Revolution (1775-1848)
2. A focus on the French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo
3. An appreciation of aspects of history that have shaped modern day Europe.
4. Relevance to Britain and the lives of British people
5. Objects, images, materials and resources (including digital) available across the heritage and cultural sector.

Waterloo200 Legacy will collaboratively partner with educational organisations, museums and the broader cultural sector, not only to champion the work they do to preserve, protect and promote the nation’s collective memory but also make use of their significant resources available, including the vast array of national digital collections, which add considerable value to the charity’s educational legacy.

To assist with this, Waterloo200 Legacy has partnered with the University of Kent to pilot a Student Ambassador Scheme, which will focus on such partnerships with cultural organizations, looking to create new, modern frameworks to maximize national educational access to their collections and programmes, whilst remembering that in our global world, what is local and unique has a special value and should be encouraged and supported.

In addition, to help embed the teaching of the Age of Revolution in UK schools, Waterloo 200 Legacy has recently partnered with the Historical Association on an ambitious three-year programme, which, at its heart, will include an intensive Teacher Fellowship Programme.

A dedication to teach the importance of this historic period and its relevance to our lives today is seen by Waterloo 200 Legacy as one of the best investments it can make as a charity.

Furthermore it promotes the extraordinary evolution of our collective creative culture and understanding the difference that such culture has on children’s education. The Age of Revolution has an incredible story to tell. To find out more, please contact [email protected].

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